All Articles: Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space

Yakuza 5 was originally released in Japan in 2012, and three years later it has finally made its way to North America courtesy of the PlayStation Store. Faster than you can say, “just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in,” Kazuma Kiryu has been pulled away from his quiet life as a taxi driver and back into the Japanese underworld in the PS3 game.

Also available to download this week is a pair of bug-hunting games in the Earth Defense Force franchise. Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair brings the series to the PS4 for the first time in an enhanced and expanded remake of Earth Defense Force 2025. Meanwhile, Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders From Planet Space for the Vita brings the second game in the series to North America for the first time. EDF! EDF! EDF!

You won’t find any giant bugs in Among the Sleep for the PS4, but the psychological horror game does feature frightening images from a two year old child’s vivid imagination. And finally this week, there’s nothing imaginary about the zombie outbreak occurring in Guns, Gore, & Cannoli, a cartoony side-scroller set in the gangster’s paradise of the 1930s.

More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)

We’ll probably never learn the truth about what happened with Devil’s Third‘s. But development on the third-person action game is finally complete and the game will be released for the Wii U this week. Originally announced in 2010 as the first game from Tomonobu Itagaki’s Valhalla Game Studios, Devil’s Third was scheduled to launch in 2012 before a series of development difficulties and THQ’s bankruptcy created a huge bottleneck. No one’s really sure what happened in the intervening years, but eventually, Nintendo stepped up and agreed to publish Devil’s Third exclusively for the Wii U. Even with that relationship in place, the publisher has been extremely quiet about Devil’s Third over the last year.

XSEED Games has announced that the Earth Defense Force will make its glorious return on December 8, 2015 with the re-release of two games in the cult favorite series.

Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair will be available for the PS4 and its an enhanced and expanded remake of 2013’s Earth Defense Force 2025. In addition to improved graphics, players will get to battle the alien menace in a series of brand new levels and control a squad of NPC soldiers that respond to commands.

The publisher will also release Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space on December 8 for the Vita. Originally released in Europe in 2007 as Global Defense Force, this re-release will mark the first time the second game in the series is available in North America.

Would you like to know more? XSEED recently launched a new website for both games at TheEDFDeploys.com.

XSEED Games has big plans for the remainder of the year. The publisher, which specializes in localizing obscure and niche titles from Japan, will release ten more games by the end of the year and they plan to bring all of them to this year’s E3 Expo.

Here’s a quick look at XSEED’s full lineup:

Corpse Party (PC) – The first game in the survival horror series is in development for the PC. (Fall 2015)

Corpse Party: Blood Drive (PS Vita) – The third, and final, game in the survival horror series will be released for the Vita. (Fall 2015)

Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space (PS Vita) – The second game in the bug-bashing shooter series will shrink down onto the Vita in its first American release. (Fall 2015)

Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair (PS4) – An enhanced version of Earth Defense Force 2025 will come to the PS4 with an expanded level count. (Fall 2015)

Return to PoPoLoCrois: A Story of Seasons Fairytale (3DS) – Farm and fight in this turn-based RPG. (Fall 2015)

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter (PC, PSP) – Yes, the “Trails in the Sky” series will finally continue in America with this PC and PSP release. (Fall 2015)

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (PS Vita, PS3) – Another Legend of Heroes game, set in the same universe as “Trails in the Sky” but starring different characters, is also coming soon. (Fall 2015)

Onechanbara Z2: Chaos (PS4) – The “bikini zombie slayers” will be back chopping heads on the PS4 soon. (Summer 2015)

Senran Kagura: Estival Versus (PS Vita, PS4) – The wave-based fighter will offer ten-player play on the PS4 and four-player play on the Vita. (Fall 2015)